1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for Shock Wave Treatment of the human or animal body and preferably the human brain.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Focused shockwaves may be used for treatment of the human or animal body. They are known to have a therapeutic effect on soft tissue and nerves and may be used for treatment of functional disorders as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease and for thrombolysis. The international patent application publication WO 1997/010758 discloses a device for generating shockwaves for the treatment of body tissue and for crushing calculi. To achieve a certain therapeutic effect, the location and the dose of the shockwaves must be controlled. To improve localization of the treated region, the European patent application EP 2078 503 A1 discloses to use a locating probe being inserted into the human body, which can be located by a magnetic locating system. Such a locating probe may be introduced into hollow organs or bones, but they are not applicable to the human brain. When applying shockwaves to a single, well-defined spot of the human body, controlling the dose may be simply done by controlling the pulse energy and the number of pulses applied. For treatment of the human brain, a larger area or volume must be treated by shockwaves. This cannot be monitored by using such a locating probe, as the probe cannot be introduced into the brain and the probe is only suitable for applying the shockwaves to a small spot having the size of the focus spot of the shockwave transducer. When applying shockwaves to the brain, these must penetrate the cranium, which attenuates the shockwaves. As the thickness of the cranium is not constant, it is not possible to calculate the applied shockwave dose. US 2010/286518 A1 discloses an ultrasound system and method to deliver therapy based on user-defined treatment spaces. US 2011/0077559 A1 discloses an ultrasound therapy head with movement control to control the movement within two axes. US 2004/0122323 discloses a tissue aberration correction in ultrasound therapy. EP 2 494 925 A1 discloses a method and an apparatus for calculating the speed of ultrasound in at least two tissue types. US 2005/0020945 A1 discloses an acoustically-aided cerebrospinal-fluid manipulation for neurodegenerative disease therapy.